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Home / World Media / IS attack on Pakistan's Sufi shrine in Sindh kills at least 72

IS attack on Pakistan's Sufi shrine in Sindh kills at least 72

Posted on Friday, February 17, 2017 by Abel Norris

Terrorists are loath to anything and everything that doesn't fit in their obscurantist ideology. General Bajwa added, "Each drop of nation's blood shall be revenged, and revenged immediately".

A devastating explosion, claimed by the Islamic State, ripped through a Sufi shrine in Sehwan town of Pakistan's Sindh province on Thursday, killing at least 72 people, including 12 women and four children, and injuring over 250 others.

Pakistan has waged several offensives against militants in recent years, including a major operation that started in mid-2014 in the last key insurgent sanctuary of North Waziristan.

Initial report suggests that it was a suicide bombing on portion reserved for women in the shrine, the Dawn reported, quoting SSP Jamshoro Tariq Wilayat. The shrine was crowded today because Sufis consider this a sacred day of prayer.

The local administration has sought night-vision helicopters from the army to shift the seriously wounded people to Hyderabad or Karachi. Another six people were killed Wednesday in a bombing in Peshawar. Senior police officer Shabbir Sethar feared the death toll might go up. Emergency has been declared in all hospitals of the area. 16 people were killed in the attack, and almost 81 injured. Earlier, provincial health minister Sikandar Ali Mandro had told AFP 35 people were dead.

The Pakistani military is reportedly sending in troops.

Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman directed his force to utilise the C-130 transport aircraft for evacuation of the casualties.

Large crowds frequent the famed shrine, which has the mausoleum of Sufi saint Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, on Thursdays.

Pakistani authorities claim militants launch attacks from Afghanistan, where the government and worldwide troops are fighting to oust al-Qaeda and the Taliban in the continuing war.

The Islamic State, a militant group based in the Middle East with allied outfits in Pakistan and Afghanistan, asserted responsibility for the blast through an affiliated news site.

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